Workers at Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, called off an open-ended strike Thursday after reaching an agreement with the government.
The strike by around 40,000 miners to protest the closure of a foundry in one of Chile’s most polluted regions ended after a day, the FTC said.
The FTC had agreed with the company to work together towards the closure of the Ventanas foundry in an area dubbed “Chiles Chernobyl” for a period of time.
Codelco announced the closure of the Ventanas foundry following an incident on June 9 in which 115 people, mostly school children, suffered sulfur dioxide poisoning released by heavy industry in the Quintero and Puchuncavi area, home to around 50,000 people.
It was the second such incident in just three days.
Greenpeace described the area around the Ventanas plant as “Chiles Chernobyl” after a serious incident in 2018 when around 600 people received medical treatment for symptoms such as vomiting blood, headaches, dizziness and paralysis of the extremities.
However, unions called the announced closure “arbitrary” and called on the government to spend money to bring the plant up to environmental standards instead.
Pollution piled up in the Quintero and Puchuncavi area after the government decided in 1958 to turn it into an industrial center that now houses four coal-fired power plants and oil and copper refineries.
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